A holiday-maker came back with an unexpected guest from her Tenerife break – a three-inch gecko lizard buried inside their luggage.

Sophie Williams found the gecko after unzipping her suitcase at her home in Field View Road, Congleton, after a four-hour plane journey from the Canary island to Manchester Airport on Sunday.

She contacted the RSPCA and an inspector transferred the young gecko - thought to only be around two weeks old - to the charity’s Stapeley Grange Wildlife Centre in Nantwich.

Despite his adventure, the gecko is doing well and will be transferred to a specialist exotic facility.

The gecko is now been cared for by the RSPCA

Sophie said: “The evening before we came home, my stepson sent me a photo of a tiny gecko in our apartment and said, ‘Look what’s visited me’. I asked him where the gecko had gone but he said he didn’t know. I think he had gone inside my stepson’s trainers which were then put into our luggage.

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“We don’t often get stowaway animals from abroad at the centre, but this is a timely reminder - given that many people are going on their summer holidays - to always check your clothes, towels and shoes properly when packing to return home from a trip abroad, as you never quite know what surprising souvenir you might bring home with you.”